I've found it's good to have one on your science ship so you can switch between your aux settings and weapons so you can take full advantage of those dropped shields, but the tank and DPS setups can use that console slot for better things.

In regular play, anyway. Dunno about the e-peen stuff like PvP and STFs.

I used to always run an EPS (Blue XI) console on my ships and I usually 6 points in the skill.

But I've found only a slight reduction, from completely dropping the EPS console.

I also want to make something clear here, I'm not saying EPS is waste of skill points. I was saying that it doesn't help with normal weapon regeneration. And I'm also saying High Impulse direct to the fight is usually a bad tactic. There are times when it's the only viable choice, that should not make it your standard operating procedure.